Final touches going into St Patrick’s Day parades plans

Fri, Feb 28, 2014

The preparations for the St Patrick’s Day parades are well underway across the county. The county town will see its parade take place a day early this year due to Castlebar Mitchels involvement in the All Ireland Club Final in Croke Park on St Patrick’s Day.

HSE refuses to provide extra ambulance for Mayo — Calleary

Fri, Feb 28, 2014

Mayo Deputy Dara Calleary has expressed his shock and disappointment at the HSE’s failure to recognise the severe ambulance shortage in Mayo. Deputy Calleary questioned HSE management at length at the Oireachtas Health Committee this week about the major gaps in resources for emergency services in Mayo. He outlined a number of cases where patients in need of emergency medical care were waiting far too long for an ambulance to reach them.

Woman stole groceries from Dunnes

Fri, Feb 28, 2014

A woman who stole a trolley load of groceries from Dunnes Store, Ballina, had her case adjourned in the district court to allow the probation services to make arrangements for suitable community service work.

Some light on horizon for local property market

Fri, Feb 28, 2014

The local property market has “bottomed out” and there appears to be some light at the end of the tunnel.

Bonfire drinking lands man before court

Fri, Feb 28, 2014

An Attymass man was brought before the court for being drunk near a bonfire at Bunree, Ballina.

Fianna Fáil hopeful to host public meeting

Fri, Feb 28, 2014

Castlebar local area election candidate Lisa Chambers has organised a public meeting to discuss the decline of town centres over the recent years. The election hopeful will be hosting the meeting in the Welcome Inn Hotel on Monday week, March 10, where Fianna Fáil TD Barry Cowen will give a talk on the party’s Streets Ahead policy document. The meeting will also be addressed by local business people and a representative from the Chamber of Commerce on the issue.

More focus needs to be put on second tier of job creators

Fri, Feb 28, 2014

More attention needs to be paid to businesses and industry in the middle tier of employers in the county, Castlebar Town Council was told last week. Tom Canavan on behalf of Castlebar Chamber of Commerce gave the council a wide ranging and comprehensive presentation about job creation.

He informed the members that in Mayo there are seven companies who employ 250 people or more and between them they employ 4,079 people in the county. But there are also 422 businesses in the county that employ between 10 and 250 people, which employ a total of 11,910 people, more than double that of the seven big employers. Mr Canavan said: “We think that these businesses have been off the radar up to now and that there has been a focus on start-ups from the County Enterprise Board. We think that it’s a lot easier to go from 10 employees to 12, rather than from none to two.”

Two decommissioned Garda stations for sale

Fri, Feb 28, 2014

They may have lost their local Garda stations but three Mayo communities have gained some benefit at least as the vacant buildings are being handed over for the use of community and voluntary groups.

Foxford man bought cannabis seeds online

Fri, Feb 28, 2014

A 28-year-old Foxford resident grew cannabis in rented accommodation and let his friends smoke it, at what Judge Mary Devins described as ‘drug parties’.

Castlebar must present itself in the best light

Fri, Feb 28, 2014

Making sure Castlebar presents the right image is something that is essential to attracting industry and investment to the town, according to Joanne Grehan, CEO of the Mayo County Enterprise Board. Ms Grehan was speaking at last week’s Castlebar Town Council meeting, where she told the members that she was in constant contact with Northgate over the start up of their new enterprise in Castlebar, but it was important that Castlebar is portrayed in a positive light as it’s being constantly monitored by potential investors. “There have been a few things out of anyone’s control in the town that were not the kind of publicity we would hope for, such as the IBAL survey results. These are the kind of things that are being looked at by the investors.”

A record year for estate takeovers in Mayo in 2013

Fri, Feb 28, 2014

At this month’s SPC for planning and economic development, Cllr Eugene McCormack welcomed the efforts by Mayo County Council and the significant progress made in taking over housing estates and completing unfinished estates. John McMyler, senior executive planner, told the meeting that Mayo Co Council had embarked on a significant programme of assessing estates for taking in charge, and in this regard 104 estates were taken over in 2013 which was a record, and that the process was continuing in 2014 with more estates in the pipeline.

‘Shocking’ wait time for money advice appointment

Fri, Feb 28, 2014

People struggling with bills and debt and in search of help to right their personal finances are waiting more than three months for an appointment at the Mayo South office of MABS - the Money Advice and Budgeting Service.

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